Rail-Safety Effort Stalled by Indian Reviews to Go Faster

By Todd Shields and Angela Greiling Keane -
Jan 30, 2014

Regulators proposed a streamlined
process for American Indian tribes to complete reviews that
railroads have said make it difficult to meet deadlines for
finishing the biggest rail-safety project in U.S. history.

Tribes would get less time to review, for historic
significance, proposed locations for 22,000 U.S. communications
antennae and would need to accept bulk applications for all
equipment proposed in a county, the Federal Communications
Commission said in a notice posted on its website yesterday.

Railroads were ordered by Congress in 2008 to install the
safety technology, known as positive train control, which uses
networks of sensors to automatically slow or stop trains if a
crash seems probable. Lawmakers acted that year after a
collision between freight and commuter trains in Los Angeles
left 25 dead and more than 100 injured.

The rail industry has asked Congress to extend the December
2015 deadline to install the crash-avoidance technology on
23,000 locomotives and 60,000 miles of tracks, at a cost of
$13.2 billion.

Work on installing the antennae required for the system to
work halted last May when the railroads and their regulators
learned that 565 American Indian tribes have the right under
U.S. law to review, one by one, whether the equipment might be
built on sacred ground.

Holly Arthur, a spokeswoman for the Association of American
Railroads whose members include the largest U.S. railroads, had
no immediate comment.

Metro North

Thirty-seven railroads including Burlington Northern Santa
Fe, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., must
install the systems on routes that carry passengers and the
most-hazardous materials, such as chlorine and anhydrous
ammonia. Railroads could be fined tens of thousands of dollars
for missing the deadline.

Historic preservation officials will be asked to approve
the revised system, the FCC said.

Positive train control technology communicates a train’s
location, speed and other information operators might need, such
as speed restrictions and approaching signals. It can slow or
automatically stop a train if its operators don’t.

The deadliest crash in the Metro-North Railroad’s history
might have been prevented had the technology been installed
where the Dec. 1 accident took place, National Transportation
Safety Board member Earl Weener has said. Four passengers died
after a Metro-North train going more than twice the speed limit
derailed on a curve in New York City.

Ground Disturbance

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which
operates Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road, in November
signed a $429 million contract to start work to develop the
technology for the two commuter railroads.

Under the FCC’s proposal, towers associated with the system
can’t exceed 75 feet, create a foundation hole in excess of 15
inches in diameter, or be deeper than 15 feet.

Ground disturbance can be important when considering
whether a project risks altering sacred sites, former
settlements or burial grounds, Ian Thompson, director of the
Historic Preservation Department with the Choctaw Nation of
Oklahoma, said in an interview.

Tribes’ rights, and the need for the FCC to consult with
them, were established by the National Historic Preservation Act
of 1966, said Bruce Milhans, spokesman for the Advisory Council
on Historic Preservation, an independent federal agency that
encourages historic preservation.